Hydrogen sulfide, the same gas used in many stink bombs, may also control blood pressure, US and Canadian researchers reported in the Oct. 24 issue of the journal Science.

The finding couldn’t come at a better time, as more Americans than ever are suffering from high blood pressure. According to a study released this month by the US National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, high blood pressure rates appear to increase in the United States. To be more specific, the percentage of Americans with the condition increased from 50.3 percent to 55.5 percent between 1994 and 2004. Moreover, people living with prehypertension, a condition prior to hypertension, increased from 32.3 percent to 36.1 percent.

High blood pressure is a serious condition that can lead to coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke, kidney failure and other serious health problems. Besides obesity, there are other factors contributing to the condition including a family history of high blood pressure, smoking, alcohol use, excessive salt in diet and a sedentary lifestyle.

The bad part is that the condition has no visible symptoms and that’s why most people are unaware that they have it, exposing themselves to serious risks.

The new study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, in Maryland, the University of Saskatchewan and Lakehead University in Canada raises the possibility that pharmacologic enhancement of hydrogen sulfide could be an alternative approach to the treatment of hypertension in humans. Hydrogen sulfide is produced in the thin lining of the blood vessels and regulates blood pressure by relaxing the blood vessels. The findings are based on studies performed in mice.

The researchers examined two groups of mice. One of them had been engineered to not have CSE, an enzyme long suspected of making hydrogen sulfide. The other group of mice was normal. The scientists further measured hydrogen sulfide levels in both groups.  Then they applied blood pressure cuffs to the mice and found that the mice with lower levels of hydrogen sulfide experienced spikes of nearly 20 points in their blood pressure. When these mice were given doses of hydrogen sulfide, they experienced lower blood pressure readings.

"Now that we know hydrogen sulfide's role in regulating blood pressure, it may be possible to design drug therapies that enhance its formation as an alternative to the current methods of treatment for hypertension," says co-author and Johns Hopkins neuroscientist Solomon H. Snyder, MD, in a news release.